Please don't shoot the messenger! It's hard to think about the holiday shopping season when the weather is warm. If you're like most of us, we prefer to spend as much time as possible enjoying the lazy days of summer, well...just being lazy :-)
If you're planning on selling your beaded creations this holiday season, you need to start planning now (or three months ago!). All of you veterans have probably got your line planned and mostly made. Your shows and selling venues lined up, and all of your supplies on hand. Hmmm..or not :-)
It's time to get busy folks! This is part of an occasional, but ongoing post about selling your work. Today I'll cover a few tips to help out the novice jewellery seller with promoting your work. If you're fairly local to beadFX, you can sign up for one of Catherine's classes, and learn just about everything you need to know. She also has a book available. I just checked, and it seems we've sold out. We'll get more asap!. I know, we promote her like crazy, but she really, really knows her stuff.
Promoting Yourself.
Does everyone you know, and I mean everyone, know that you make jewellery? Well, they should. Blow your own horn, a little, or a lot, whichever you're more comfortable with. Everyone needs to know!
- Wear your jewellery. This may seem obvious to some, but if we're in a hurry, it's easy to forget. Wear your jewellery, every day, everywhere you go. When asked about your work, hand out a business card. Business cards are very, very affordable. At the least, you'll want a fab picture of your work, your name, and contact information. If you have a website, make sure the link is on there.
A very affordable place to get business cards is Vistaprint. You can use your own artwork, or use one of their templates for the graphically challenged amongst us. Another interesting type of card available is a Moo card. These are smaller cards, sold in packs of 100. Each card can be a little different. You plug in your photo's, and the site will help you create your card.
Make sure you have a lot of cards on hand, at least a 1000 of your regular business cards. If you're doing a show, you want to make sure anyone who even comes near your booth gets one! :-) Put a business card in their bag when they make a purchase as well. If you have a website listed on your card, you can even post your business card in restaurants, the grocery store, anywhere that has a board for cards.
Get your friends and family to help spread the word. If you have a fashionista friend or family member, have her wear your jewellery to work, parties, dinner... Make sure she has business cards on her. You can pay her for being your sales rep with free jewelry! Having someone else toot your horn is a lot easier than tooting your own.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more tips!
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